The invention concerns a disposable diaper, in particular, for incontinent care, having a hip belt, wherein the hip belt comprises a first hip belt section with a first end section, and a second hip belt section with a second end section, wherein the first and the second hip belt sections can be fixed on top of each other using a first closing means for forming a closed hip opening, and with a diaper main part having a front area, a rear area, an intermediate crotch area and a liquid absorbing element, wherein the longitudinal end of the front area or the rear area of the diaper main part can be detachably fixed to the hip belt via second closing means, such that a user can grasp the diaper main part between his/her legs, when the hip belt has been applied, and can detachably fix the free longitudinal end of the diaper main part to the hip belt.
A disposable diaper of this type has been disclosed e.g. in US 2001/0034512 A1 or EP 1 269 949 A2.
Disposable diapers of this type are advantageous in that a user initially disposes the hip belt around the hips for applying the diaper, and can usually close it in the belly area. The diaper main part of the disposable diaper, which is usually fastened at its rear area to the belt, thereby hangs loosely downwards. After closing the hip belt, the user grasps the freely hanging end of the diaper main part and guides the diaper main part from behind and between the legs in order to fix the free longitudinal end of the diaper main part to the inside or outside of the hip belt in a detachable fashion using first closing means. It is clear that the disposable diaper may also be applied such that, after positioning and closing the hip belt, the diaper main part which hangs freely downwards, is guided from the front to the rear between the legs of a user to then be detachably mounted with its rear area to the hip belt. In other conventional disposable diapers, the diaper main part can be completely detached from the hip belt, such that the disposable diaper can be handled with great flexibility as is required, in particular, for users who require extensive care and/or are immobile.
The disposable diapers of this type are mainly used for adults. In contrast to babies and small children, the hip measurement of adults varies to a larger degree. This creates the problem of insufficient flexibility of such disposable diapers with respect to adjustment of the diaper to the hip measurement of the user.
WO-02/22063-A1 discloses a solution for this problem. It proposes to provide one of the belt halves with adhesive means, so that it can be folded. The closed hip opening is formed exclusively by the other one of the two belt halves.
This solution is disadvantageous in that on the one hand, the process of folding one of the belt halves is very difficult for the user and the folded belt half protrudes. Moreover, the folding edges produce pressure marks, in particular when the user is confined to bed.
The desired flexible length adjustment is moreover only slightly improved, since the diaper can be adjusted, in particular, to only very large and very small hip measurements.
It is the underlying purpose of the present invention to improve a disposable diaper of this type in view of the above-mentioned problem, in particular, for increasing the flexibility of length adjustment and improving handling for the user compared to conventional solutions.